Beijing: China has more than 11,000 islands including in the disputed East and South China Sea, according to a survey.
The total area of these islands account for about 0.8 per cent of the nation's land area, with most of the islands in the nation's southern shore region, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
Chinese provinces Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong have the largest number of islands, a survey by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said.
The islands included those disputed between China and Japan in the East China Sea and China and host of maritime neighbours in the South China Sea.
China's claim over all most all of South China Sea is disputed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. China has built a nationwide island conservation planning system, according to the survey.
Since 2010, China repaired damaged islands with 3.6 billion yuan (about USD 525 million) from the central budget, 2.6 billion yuan from the local budget and 300 million yuan from enterprises, in a total of 169 projects.
Meanwhile, the SOA has successfully finished a census of the names of all the islands. By the end of 2015, the administration had approved the exploration and utilisation of 16 uninhabited islands, covering about 1,666 hectares. The number of islands in China was calculated as of December 31, 2015.
